Short Wins – A Franks Hearing in the Seventh Circuit!

Who doesn’t love a good Franks hearing? Apparently the district court judge in the Seventh Circuit case of United States v. McMurtrey.

It’s a relatively quiet week in the federal circuit’s for defense victories. A Fourth Amendment win in the Tenth Circuit, a few sentencing remands, and, most exciting (for me) a Franks hearing remand in the Seventh.

To the victories!

1. United States v. Castro, Third Circuit: Appellant was convicted of offenses arising out of three separate schemes to extort money through violence. Because the record did not contain evidence that he knowingly made a false statement to the FBI, his conviction of this offense was reversed. Given the reversal of his conviction on this count, remand was required for resentencing on appellant’s conviction for conspiracy to commit extortion to calculate the correct guidelines range.

2. United States v. De La Cruz, Tenth Circuit: The district court erred in denying appellant’s motion to suppress his ID card, which was obtained during an investigative seizure, because (1) the agents did not have reasonable suspicion to continue to detain appellant to obtain his identification and (2) the court erroneously concluded that appellant’s identification was not suppressible, even if there was an unlawful seizure. For these reasons, the district court’s decision was reversed and the case remanded.

3. United States v. Fraga, Fifth Circuit: Appellant was sentenced to 27 months in prison and a lifetime of supervised release after pleading guilty to failing to register as a sex offender. Because the district court did not give reasons for its imposition of a lifetime term of supervised release, this portion of the sentence was vacated and the case remanded.

4. United States v. McIntosh, Eleventh Circuit: Appellant was sentenced to 120 months in prison after pleading guilty to possession of five grams of crack with intent to distribute and carrying a firearm during a drug trafficking offense. After appellant committed these offenses, but before he was sentenced, the Fair Sentencing Act was enacted. The Act, among other things, raised the threshold possession amount that triggered the mandatory minimum sentence – 120 months – applied in appellant’s case. Because appellant was sentenced after the Act’s effective date, he was entitled to have the benefit of the Act’s higher threshold for the mandatory minimum sentence. Consequently, his sentence was vacated and the case remanded for resentencing.

5. United States v. McMurtrey, Seventh Circuit: Because appellant demonstrated that the affidavits on which the search warrant for appellant’s home was based were contradictory, remand was required for a full hearing pursuant to Franks v. Delaware.